August 2011 Healthcare news snippets

BRICS vow to improve access to low-cost medicine

Calls on developed nations to boost WHO funding

The BRICS group of emerging countries on Monday vowed to improve access to low-cost and high-quality medicine -- and called on developed nations to shoulder responsibility in helping the poor.

Health ministers from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa said they would work with international groups such as the World Health Organization and UNAIDS to provide "affordable, safe and effective technologies".

"We are committed to continue to collaborate in order to advance access to public health services and... support other countries in their efforts to promote health for all," the BRICS group said in a statement.

The five emerging countries together account for more than 40 percent of the world's population.

The gathering in the Chinese capital was the first health minister-level meeting for the BRICS group of nations. It was attended by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization.

The BRICS called on WHO members, especially developed countries, to boost funding for the organisation while Brazilian health minister Alexandre Padilha told reporters wealthier countries should "shoulder" responsibility.

WHO director general Margaret Chan called on the BRICS -- major suppliers of generic drugs used to treat diseases such as HIV/AIDS -- to boost production.

SAPA - 12 July 2011

Traditional medicine should be embraced

Traditional medicine needs to be embraced so that it finds expression through combating diseases, according to the Department of Science and Technology. Director-general Molapo Qhobela, said if traditional medicine was to play a strategic role in combating the heavy burden of disease, it would need to be mainstreamed so that it could benefit from advances in the other sciences.

He was speaking at an African traditional medicine and intellectual property workshop held in Pretoria. Qhobela said South Africa should learn from China and India, which had effectively integrated traditional medicine into their health systems. He further emphasised the need to preserve African medicine, saying that one way of securing the future of indigenous knowledge and research on traditional medicine was the advancement and refinement of regulatory regimes. The drafting of ethical guidelines for researchers and research institutions had already been completed. The department plans to conduct research on medicinal plants, a move in which the Traditional Healers' Organisation wanted to involve traditional healers themselves. Its spokeswoman Phephisile Maseko said while the organisation was not objecting to research, healers believed that leaving government to do research on its own, and excluding them, would undermine their own work done so far. She highlighted that 72 percent of South Africans made use of traditional medicines, adding that Christianity and the media were the ones who had demonised traditional medicines. Of the known plant species in the country, 3 000 of them have medicinal potential. Maseko said it pained her that traditional medicines had for a number of years been exploited by big conglomerates. She said healers were interacting with government to ensure that never happened again.

SAPA, 14 July 2011

HIV drugs more effective than thought

USING HIV treatment drugs to reduce the risk of spreading AIDS may be even more effective than thought, according to new analysis from a landmark trial.

 A four-day meeting in Rome under the International AIDS Society was given the first full peer-reviewed data from a trial whose preliminary results were unveiled to media in May to astonishment and acclaim.

These figures found that giving an HIV-infected patient early treatment reduced the risk of transmitting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by sex to a non-infected partner by 96 percent. That performance puts early therapy on a par with a condom, a prevention often shunned by people at risk.

The analysis suggested this already-stellar protectiveness could even be a shade higher. Named HPTN 052, for HIV Prevention Trials Network 052, the project entailed enrolling 1 763 "serodiscordant" couples, meaning couples where one partner was infected by HIV while the other was HIV-free.

It took place at 13 sites in Botswana, Brazil, India, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Thailand, the United States and Zimbabwe. In one group, the HIV-infected partners began taking HIV drugs immediately. In the other, the infected partner delayed taking the therapy until his or her count of immune cells or state of health met guidelines for initiating treatment under the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO).

Initial data found that 39 people became infected in the course of the study. A triple test to determine the source of this infection found that 27 cases occurred from infected partners in the delayed treatment group, and one in the immediate treatment group. The 11 other cases were caused by sex with non-partners or were undetermined at that point.

The latest data found 28 cases among the delayed treatment group - one more than before. It also discovered that the sole case in the immediate treatment group was a person who probably became infected close to the time when the couple enrolled in the study and before HIV drugs could suppress the virus in body fluids. In a further benefit, early use of drugs was also associated with a 41 percent reduction in sickness or death related to HIV. When these figures are put together, it means that the benefits of immediately starting HIV treatment are even stronger than thought, said the study. The WHO hailed "the exciting results" of the study and said they would be factored into guidelines for using antiretrovirals and testing and counselling couples.

SAPA, 18 July 2011